1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the use of a parvovirus, preferably parvovirus H1 or a related parvovirus such as LuIII, Mouse minute virus (MMV), Mouse parvovirus (MPV), Rat minute virus (RMV), Rat parvovirus (RPV) or Rat virus (RV), or a cell actively producing a parvovirus, for the preparation of pharmaceutical compositions useful for the treatment of brain tumors, such as glioma, medulloblastoma or meningioma. The invention also relates to pharmaceutical compositions for such therapeutic applications, and to corresponding methods of treatment of brain tumors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Malignant human glioblastomas account for the largest number of human malignant brain tumors. The conventional approaches to treatment of gliomas include neurosurgical techniques (resection or stereotactic procedures), radiation therapy and chemotherapy. However, despite these therapies glioblastomas are considered as incurable, since treatment with ionizing radiation, chemotherapy and/or surgical resection achieves only a very limited prolongation of life span of patients. Typically, the average life span after diagnosis is on the order of about 12 to 16 months.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide means and methods of treating brain tumors, e.g., glioma, medullobastoma and meningioma, which overcome the disadvantages of the current therapies and which are fundamentally different from surgical approaches, since even most recent surgical techniques including neuronavigation and intraoperative MRI are not able to significantly improve the therapeutic outcomes for glioblastoma patients.